We learn today that Nigel Farage will not be welcome in the Tory Party by any of the six current Tory leadership candidates. They have their own reasons for such an opinion, but it is in line with what I have come to believe about the cut-throat spirit of Toryism. In this case, these leadership hopefuls are harming themselves as well as their Party. They are annoyed with Nigel Farage for the Tory Party’s failure at the last General Election.

The same day, we are told that one of Murdo Fraser’s Scottish Parliament Tory colleagues has said that Fraser’s Scottish leadership “campaign is awful”. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

I am reminded about Sir Vince Cable’s assessment of the Tory leaders with whom he worked when he was in the Tory–Lib-Dem Government (2010-2015). He described the Tories as “collectively appalling, with ugly tribal prejudices” and he has used an even more colourful description.

If these Tory leadership hopefuls had better Christian principles, they might discern that this short-sighted and unchristian attitude will prove to be their undoing. One of them will win the Tory leadership but not my endorsement of their leadership principles.

“If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

Jesus Christ: Mat 15:14.

Updates:

4 Sep 2024: the Tories are defaulting on their responsibilities. No Tory MPs attended 75% of debates in the House of Commons since the General Election. The Tory shadow cabinet members will not make speeches at the approaching Tory Party Conferences because of the leadership contest. The current Tory leadership is neither speaking in the House of Commons nor at the Tory Party Conference. Who organised this shambles? Was it the same leader who unnecessarily sprung a General Election on an unprepared Tory Party? The Tory Party is leaderless and rudderless. When the tide runs out, a lot of things are exposed.

21 Sep 2024: the Tories gave no acknowledgement nor word of appreciation to Nigel Farage for standing down to let Boris Johnston gain his huge majority, no knighthood, no seat in the House of Lords [at 21:24hrs] and now “the gloves are off” between Reform UK and the Tories after the Reform UK Conference in Birmingham ended today. The BBC does not have the Conference on its website – searching for BBC and Reform UK Conference 2024 yields no results.

30 Sep 2024: the inability of the Tories to thank Nigel Farage [19:08 hrs] for standing down Brexit Party candidates in 2019 to enable Boris Johnson to win and secure Brexit. Even now there is an inability to have a non-aggression Pact with Reform UK to defeat Labour. The Tories live with their past political dominance and their sense of self-entitlement (which many sitting MPs nurture), and hope to recover it on the principle that the Conservative Party is the longest-standing British political party and “deserves” to retain its brand.

30 Sep 2024: the Tory leadership contest at the Tory Party Conference continues to demonstrate “blue on blue”, the Jenrick team attacking Kemi Badenoch [21:13 and 21:15 hrs]. Jacob Rees-Mogg has promoted a non-aggression pact between the Tories and Reform UK [20:05 hrs] to “reunite the right” because it is better to have a coalition before the election rather than afterwards [21:12 hrs]. However, this will allow the Tories to recover and Farage has said that he wants to destroy the Tories. Kemi Badenoch said that Reform UK is not serious nor Conservative [20:15 hrs].

1 Oct 2024: Robert Jenrick at today’s Tory Party Conference said that he wants “to retire Nigel Farage” [14:30 hrs] and that Reform UK members are “our people”. Not only is this wishful thinking but it continues to show the spirit of Tory leadership. When he was asked by Christopher Hope if he would make use of Boris Johnson, he said that he would wait to see what Boris says about him in his forthcoming book. James Cleverly also dismissed Reform UK as “a pale imitation of us” [15:24 hrs] and said that Nigel Farage “is not a Tory and wants to destroy our Party”, so he would not do a deal with such. Such an attitude will lead to further division within the Tory Party.

8 Oct 2024: the attitude between Tory MPs was described as “visceral and vicious” [at 19:09 hrs] on GB News.

9 Oct 2024: after being 16/1 favourite to win the Tory leadership race, the Tory MPs have ditched him from the contest and Kemi Badenoch has topped the poll, followed by Robert Jenrick. This move to the right shows that yet again, Nigel Farage is the winner. The Reform UK Party has done it again, forcing Tory MPs to move to “the Right”.

5 Nov 2024: even although the Tories have their lowest number of MPs in generations, even although the the new leader Kemi Badenoch has offered a place in her shadow cabinet to all the leadership contenders to try to unite the Parliamentary , yet Tom Tugendhat has not accepted a position and James Cleverley had already decided to retreat to the back benches before the outcome was known. Neither is Suella Braverman among the top team, nor Jeremy Hunt. One can discern the re-grouping for future manoeuvres, far from the unity that the Tories need but typical of the spirit of current Toryism. Personalities and Party first, the country further down their pecking list. Christopher Hope has called it the Shallow Cabinet [15:15 hrs] although he thinks that Badenoch is more likely to unite the Party than Robert Jenrick, so this does not augur well for Tory Party unity, especially as Reform UK has had an increased membership over the weekend following Badenoch’s election [15:18 hrs].

7 Dec 2024: Tim Montgomerie receives the heretic-treatment from former Tory colleagues, accused of betrayal. Welcome to “the spirit of Toryism”.

26 Dec 2024: the moment when Reform UK membership overtook the Tories. The 132,000 membership of Reform UK now gives Reform a claim to being the official opposition in Britain. Farage said: “This is a big, historic moment. The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK are now the real opposition.”

27 Dec 2024: Kemi Badenoch is spooked and unwisely questioned the honesty of Reform UK statistics, provoking a threat of legal action against her.

28 Dec 2024: Kemi Badenoch is demonstrating how puerile is the Tory leadership [at 21:32 hrs]. She thinks GB News gives too much airtime to Nigel Farage. Her public reactions are giving credibility to the earlier reports about her bullying attitudes with colleagues. She quotes Alister Campbell [sic] and his spin, but “it takes one to know one” and there is a touch of the said Alastair Campbell about her angry responses, without his political skill.

8 Feb 2024: some Tory grandees are proposing a Tory-Reform UK pact before the next General Election. There was an opportunity when Nigel Farage attended the Tory Conference and was lauded by the attendees, but since then the Tory Westminster leadership contest has alienated Farage but also multitudes of their supporters who have defected to Reform UK. Tomorrow is 100 days of Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership and only two days ago she produced her first Tory policy – clearly determined by Nigel Farage whom she denigrates.

12 Mar 2025: little dignity nor gravitas manifested by the Badenoch-led Tory Party.